Perceived social support and general psychological distress in the post-pandemic era: mediation of perceived stress and moderation of psychological resilience.
- 1Department of Military Medical Psychology, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Abstract
Background
In the post-pandemic era, the continuation of social distancing and the popularization of social media are changing people's psychological states. This study examined the effect of perceived social support on general psychological distress via perceived stress, as well as the moderating role of psychological resilience.Methods
A nationwide sample of 8,131 valid responses was obtained through convenience sampling via the Questionnaire Star platform between February and March 2025. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), and the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) were used to evaluate the related variables. The moderated mediation model was tested using Hayes' PROCESS macro (Version 4.3), and the bias-corrected bootstrap method was used for analysis.Results
Perceived stress was positively associated with general psychological distress (β = 0.3628, p < 0.001). The interaction between perceived social support and psychological resilience was significant in predicting perceived stress (β = -0.3595, p < 0.001) and general psychological distress (β = 0.0803, p < 0.001). Conditional indirect effects were significant at low and high levels of resilience but reversed in sign: at low resilience (M-1SD), the indirect effect was positive [0.0903, 95%CI (0.0716, 0.1105)], whereas at high resilience, it was negative.Conclusion
Perceived social support was associated with lower general psychological distress, in part through lower perceived stress; psychological resilience moderated the paths from perceived social support to perceived stress and general psychological distress. The crossover interaction at low psychological resilience suggests that perceived social support does not uniformly translate into perceived stress relief across individuals.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{zhao2026perceived,
title = {{Perceived social support and general psychological distress in the post-pandemic era: mediation of perceived stress and moderation of psychological resilience.}},
author = {Lixin Zhao and Zhitao Yuan and Mengyuan Yang and Xianyang Wang and Shengjun Wu},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1939954},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42936239},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Perceived social support and general psychological distress in the post-pandemic era: mediation of perceived stress and moderation of psychological resilience.
AU - Lixin Zhao
AU - Zhitao Yuan
AU - Mengyuan Yang
AU - Xianyang Wang
AU - Shengjun Wu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Frontiers in psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1939954
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42936239
AB - Background In the post-pandemic era, the continuation of social distancing and the popularization of social media are changing people's psychological states. This study examined the effect of perceived social support on general psychological distress via perceived stress, as well as the moderating role of psychological resilience.Methods A nationwide sample of 8,131 valid responses was obtained through convenience sampling via the Questionnaire Star platform between February and March 2025. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), and the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) were used to evaluate the related variables. The moderated mediation model was tested using Hayes' PROCESS macro (Version 4.3), and the bias-corrected bootstrap method was used for analysis.Results Perceived stress was positively associated with general psychological distress (β = 0.3628, p < 0.001). The interaction between perceived social support and psychological resilience was significant in predicting perceived stress (β = -0.3595, p < 0.001) and general psychological distress (β = 0.0803, p < 0.001). Conditional indirect effects were significant at low and high levels of resilience but reversed in sign: at low resilience (M-1SD), the indirect effect was positive [0.0903, 95%CI (0.0716, 0.1105)], whereas at high resilience, it was negative.Conclusion Perceived social support was associated with lower general psychological distress, in part through lower perceived stress; psychological resilience moderated the paths from perceived social support to perceived stress and general psychological distress. The crossover interaction at low psychological resilience suggests that perceived social support does not uniformly translate into perceived stress relief across individuals.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -